Nvidia (NVDA) stock on Tuesday rose 5% to close at a record high after the company announced a slew of product updates, partnerships, and investment initiatives at its GTC event in Washington, D.C., putting it on the doorstep of becoming the first company in history with a market value above $5 trillion.
The AI chip giant is approaching the threshold — settling at a market cap of $4.89 trillion on Tuesday — just months after becoming the first to close above $4 trillion in July.
Among other announcements, Nvidia revealed Tuesday it is working with the US Department of Energy to build seven new supercomputers, including one that will use 10,000 Blackwell GPUs.
Other announcements include a deal to work with Uber (UBER) to build a fleet of self-driving cars and an agreement to sell 1,000 GPUs to drugmaker Eli Lilly (LLY). Nvidia also said it is working with Nokia (NOK) to help develop next-generation 6G cellular technology.
Nvidia also announced tie-ups with Palantir (PLTR) and Oracle (ORCL), as well as telecom partnerships on a wireless 6G buildout, including Cisco (CSCO) and T-Mobile (TMUS). The company also highlighted how its AI tech is powering robotics initiatives from companies ranging from Amazon (AMZN) to Foxconn, Caterpillar (CAT), and Belden (BDC), among others.
The company also announced a new open systems architecture, Nvidia NVQLink, aimed at accelerating the development of quantum supercomputers, including partners like Rigetti (RGTI) and IonQ (IONQ).
During his keynote presentation on Tuesday, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the company expects to realize $500 billion in GPU sales through the end of 2026. The company’s total revenue tallied just over $100 billion in the first two quarters of this year.
Nvidia also stands to benefit from a potential trade deal between the US and China, which could see Nvidia resume sales of its chips in the Chinese market.
Its stock has been on a tear this year, climbing more than 50% year to date and more than doubling since its lows back in April.
The company’s chips are the building blocks of the massive data centers that cloud service providers, including Amazon, Google (GOOG, GOOGL), and Microsoft (MSFT), are constructing worldwide.
Nvidia has also been busy putting its own cash to work, investing up to $100 billion in OpenAI (OPAI.PVT), which is also one of its most important customers.
While Nvidia remains the AI chip leader, competition in the space is increasing. Rival AMD (AMD) has signed a deal with OpenAI for up to 6 gigawatts worth of AI processors and inked a separate deal with Oracle for 50,000 GPUs.